This invention relates to the gripping and treating of small workpieces and, more particularly, to an apparatus for gripping and holding a plurality of relatively small flat chips, such as electron microscope grids, for the purpose of treating or staining the chips.
In various applications, it is necessary to handle very small flat chips of material so as to treat a surface thereof. Individual handling of such items is often difficult or interferes with the desired treatment. For example, electron microscope grids are typically small thin discs, and the staining thereof can be difficult due to their small size.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which efficiently grips and holds, under operator control, a relatively large number of small flat chips, by the edges thereof, so that any desired kind of treatment can be effected.